discharge

English Online Dictionary. What means discharge‎? What does discharge mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English dischargen, from Old French deschargier (“to unload”), from Late Latin discarricāre (“unload”). By surface analysis, dis- +‎ charge.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation)
  • (verb) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈtʃɑːdʒ/
  • (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪstʃɑːdʒ/
• (US)
  • (verb) enPR: dĭschärj', IPA^(key): /dɪsˈtʃɑɹdʒ/
  • (noun) enPR: dĭs'chärj, IPA^(key): /ˈdɪstʃɑɹdʒ/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)dʒ, -ɪstʃɑː(ɹ)dʒ

Verb

discharge (third-person singular simple present discharges, present participle discharging, simple past and past participle discharged)

1. To accomplish or complete, as an obligation.
2. To free of a debt, claim, obligation, responsibility, accusation, etc.; to absolve; to acquit; to forgive; to clear.
3. To send away (a creditor) satisfied by payment; to pay one's debt or obligation to.
4. To set aside; to annul; to dismiss.
5. To expel or let go.
   • January 1, 1878, Herbert Spencer, Ceremonial Government, published in The Fortnightly Review No. 132

     Feeling in other cases discharges itself in indirect muscular actions.

6. To let fly, as a missile; to shoot.
7. (electricity) To release (an accumulated charge).
8. To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss.

   Synonyms: fire, let go, terminate; see also Thesaurus:lay off

   1. (medicine) To release (an inpatient) from hospital.
   2. (military) To release (a member of the armed forces) from service.
9. To release legally from confinement; to set at liberty.

10. To operate (any weapon that fires a projectile, such as a shotgun or sling).
11. (logic) To release (an auxiliary assumption) from the list of assumptions used in arguments, and return to the main argument.
12. To unload a ship or another means of transport.
13. To put forth, or remove, as a charge or burden; to take out, as that with which anything is loaded or filled.

14. To give forth; to emit or send out.

15. To let fly; to give expression to; to utter.

16. (transitive, textiles) To bleach out or to remove or efface, as by a chemical process.

17. (obsolete, Scotland) To prohibit; to forbid.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

discharge (countable and uncountable, plural discharges)

1. The act of expelling or letting go.
   1. (medicine) The act of releasing an inpatient from hospital.

   2. (military) The act of releasing a member of the armed forces from service.

      Hyponyms: dishonorable discharge, honorable discharge

2. The material thus released.

3. The act of firing a projectile, especially from a firearm.

   Synonym: firing

4. The process of removing the load borne by something.

   Synonym: unloading

5. The process of flowing out.
   1. (medicine, uncountable) Pus or exudate or mucus (but in modern usage not exclusively blood) from a wound or orifice, usually due to pathological or hormonal changes.
6. (electricity) The act of releasing an accumulated charge.
7. (hydrology) The volume of water transported by a river in a certain amount of time, usually in units of m³/s (cubic meters per second).
8. The act of accomplishing (an obligation) or repaying a debt etc.; performance.
9. (law) Release from liability, as granted to someone having served in a position of trust, such as to the officers and governors of a corporate body.

Derived terms

Translations